Today in History for Nov. 18:
On this date:
In 1095, Pope Urban II called 600 men to the Council of Clermont, where he asked Europe to recapture the Holy Land from the Turks. A vast crusading army was deployed.
In 1626, the newly rebuilt Basilica of St. Peter was consecrated in Vatican City, Rome.
In 1791, the Constitutional Act, creating the jurisdictions of Upper and Lower Canada, was proclaimed. It came into effect on Dec. 26.
In 1883, the first operation of Standard Time in North America began at midnight in eastern Nova Scotia. Scottish-born Sir Sandford Fleming played a major role in introducing the concept around the world. Fleming, who was also Canada's foremost railway surveyor and construction engineer of the 19th century, first proposed the international standard time measurement at a Toronto conference in 1879. The rest of the world adopted the idea in 1884. (Note for trivia buffs -- Fleming also designed Canada's first postage stamp, the 1851 "three-penny beaver.")
In 1903, the United States and Panama signed a treaty granting the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal. Exactly five years later, the treaty was ratified.
In 1929, an earthquake in Cape Breton sent a 15-metre tidal wave onto Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. The wall of water killed 27 people and did $2 million in damage.
In 1936, the "Toronto Globe" bought the "Mail and Empire" and formed "The Globe and Mail."
In 1936, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
In 1958, the cargo freighter "SS Carl D. Bradley" sank during a storm in Lake Michigan, claiming 33 of the 35 lives on board.
In 1961, the Saskatchewan legislature passed a law giving that province Canada's first pre-paid medical care plan.
In 1963, the Nova Scotia government closed the province's last segregated school for blacks.
In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside of Lent.
In 1972, a massive rock slide destroyed 30 metres of scenic walkway along the Whirlpool Rapids, three kilometres downstream from Niagara Falls.
In 1975, the Ontario government introduced legislation to lower highway speed limits and make the wearing of seat-belts mandatory.
In 1976, Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
In 1978, U.S. congressman Leo Ryan and four other Americans were killed by members of the People's Temple commune in Jonestown, Guyana. Shortly after, more than 900 members of the sect, including leader Jim Jones, committed suicide.
In 1980, Conn Smythe, 85, founder of the Toronto Maple Leafs, died in Caledon, Ont. He started as a hockey coach for the University of Toronto team, the Varsity Grads. With the help of some associates, Smythe raised $160,000 to buy the Toronto St. Pats and change their name to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was largely responsible for the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens.
In 1981, the Hudson's Bay Company announced the closure of its 65 Ontario catalogue stores.
In 1986, the Ontario legislature passed a bill extending government services in French to almost all of Ontario.
In 1987, George Ryga, one of Canada's most acclaimed playwrights, best known for his 1967 work "The Ecstasy of Rita Joe," died in Summerland, B.C., at the age of 55.
In 1987, the U.S. Congressional Iran-Contra committee issued its final report, saying U.S. President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing committed by his aides.
In 1987, a fire beneath King's Cross subway and railway station in London killed 31 people.
In 1992, Church of England envoy Terry Waite was released by Lebanese captors after being taken hostage in 1987. An American professor -- Thomas Sutherland, kidnapped in 1985 -- was also released.
In 1992, Superman, alias Clark Kent, died after 54 years as one of North America's greatest superheroes. Superman was killed by Doomsday, a supervillain he had fought in D.C. Comics. You can't keep a good Man of Steel down, however -- and Superman was resurrected within a year.
In 1994, the Quebec government officially shelved the controversial $13.3 billion Great Whale hydro electric project.
In 1996, the Ontario legislature voted 63-33 in favour of video lottery terminals in the province. All opposition Liberals and the NDP voted against Bill 75.
In 1997, Jane Urquhart won her first Governor General's award for fiction for her book "The Underpainter."
In 1998, Toronto-based theatre production company Livent Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and fired company co-founders Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb. Livent's New York-based management team, which had taken over the previous April, said Drabinsky and Gottlieb "fraudulently manipulated" the company's financial records to hide losses of as much as $100 million. (Both were convicted of fraud with Drabinsky handed a five-year prison term while Gottlieb received a four-year term.).
In 1999, a traditional pre-football game bonfire at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, toppled, crushing 11 students to death.
In 2002, Comcast Corp. became the world's largest cable company after purchasing AT&T's cable systems for US$58.7 billion.
In 2003, George W. Bush became the first U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson in 1918 to be given a full state visit to Britain.
In 2003, a judge in Modesto, Calif., ordered Scott Peterson to stand trial for the killing of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son. (Peterson was later convicted and sentenced to death.)
In 2007, a methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing 101 miners.
In 2009, former Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin testified before a special House of Commons committee, that all of the prisoners Canada handed to Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service in 2006-07 were tortured, and many of them were likely innocent.
In 2009, Alberta passed legislation allowing the province to sue criminals and tobacco companies to recover health-care costs.
In 2010, N.L. Premier Danny William announced a $6.2-billion deal to develop the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project in Labrador with help from Nova Scotia.
In 2010, General Motors returned to life as a public company in North America's largest initial public offering worth US$23 billion. The federal and Ontario governments, who owned a combined 11.67 per cent of GM since the previous year's bailout, reduced their stake to below 10 per cent by selling about 35 million shares.
In 2010, the Canadian Forces took what was believed to be an unprecedented step in burning the uniform of sex killer Russell Williams. Military clothes and other gear retrieved from his Ontario cottage where he committed one of his murders was burned at CFB Trenton -- the same base the former colonel once commanded.
In 2013, former northern priest Eric Dejaeger pleaded guilty in a Nunavut courtroom to eight of 76 sex-related charges he faced involving Inuit children more than 30 years earlier. In September 2014, a judge found him guilty of 24 more charges.
In 2014, several feet of lake-effect snow paralyzed the Buffalo, N.Y., area on a wintry day when temperatures fell to near freezing or below in all 50 U.S. states and most of Canada.
In 2014, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demanded the auto industry issue a nationwide recall of millions of additional cars equipped with Takata air bag inflators linked to the deaths of at least 16 people. (The Japanese autoparts maker expanded the worldwide recall to 100 million, the largest auto recall in history. Takata filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo and the U.S. in June 2017 and rival Key Safety Systems bought most of Takata's assets for $1.6 billion although Takata's operations continued to make inflators to be used as replacement parts in the recalls.)
In 2019, Canadian women's hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The quadruple Olympic gold medallist and seven-time world champion retired in January 2017 and enrolled in medical school. The 41-year-old was among six inductees enshrined in the Hall of Fame. She joined three-time Stanley Cup winner Guy Carbonneau, offensive blue-line dynamo Sergei Zubov and Czech great Vaclav Nedomansky in the players’ category. Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford and longtime Boston College coach Jerry York went into the hall as builders.
In 2019, Hockey Canada announced it was changing its traditional age group names a year after some other sports organizations stopped using the terms. The governing body of hockey in Canada announced that novice, peewee, atom, bantam and midget will be replaced by the ages of the players, from under-7 up to under-21 beginning next season.
In 2020, American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said new numbers from its ongoing COVID-19 vaccine study suggest the shots are 95 per cent effective. The announcement came just a week after Pfizer first revealed preliminary results. Initially, Pfizer and German partner BioNTech said the vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective.
In 2020, a jet grounded worldwide after two crashes that killed 346 people, including 18 Canadians, was cleared to fly again. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it would certify the Boeing 737 Max jet to fly after a comprehensive and methodical 20-month review process. Boeing said it overhauled anti-stall software that pushed the nose down repeatedly on both planes that crashed, overcoming the pilots' struggles to regain control. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Canada would impose different requirements than the U.S., including added procedures on the flight deck and before takeoff.
In 2021, PJ Akeeagok became the new premier of Nunavut. Akeeagok, 37, is from Nunavut's most northern community of Grise Fiord and represents an Iqaluit constituency in the legislative assembly. Akeeagok beat out incumbent premier Joe Savikataaq and former health minister Lorne Kusugak for the job.
In 2021, the winner of the 57th Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild was Helen Mirren. The Oscar-, BAFTA-, Tony- and SAG-winning stage and screen actor's 50-year career has seen her play everything from a gangster's girlfriend to the Queen.
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The Canadian Press